By: Alexandra Garcia
This May of 2023 the PHS journalism staff would like to recognize Coach Salinas as our Teacher Spotlight. We had the opportunity to interview him and get great feedback about his teaching and coaching life here at PHS.
Coach Salinas first graduated from just down the road at Jourdanton High School, and when it came time for college,… he says, “After bouncing around to a few different colleges and taking some time away to just work, I finally decided to return to UTSA and finish my degree in Kinesiology.”
Coach Salinas has now been teaching here at PHS for 10 years. When he first started he only taught geometry, but after 3 years he started teaching Algebra 1 along with geometry to the freshman class.
Coach Salinas was also known for coaching football and basketball for the first 7 years here at PHS but eventually decided to take a step away from coaching to be there for his wife and kids.
He was first inspired to teach because he wanted to impact students and our Atascosa County.
He says “I grew up in this community and feel that I can relate to many students on this campus.”
Originally he wanted to become a coach before he wanted to become a teacher because of the impact his coaches had on his life. But not long after he says he believed he had fallen in love with teaching as the side job of coaching, and feels that he still can make a difference with every student he teaches along with students he coached.
Coach Salinas says “When things are tough, I like to look at this Dr. Seuss quote which hangs in my room. It reads, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” My goal here is to ensure that students feel like I care about who they are, besides being a student in my class.”
“I also really enjoy Algebra and working with Freshman students because I feel that I can make a stronger impact on their high school experience and understand expectations on our campus.”
He states that one of his favorite parts of teaching here is “seeing the growth of my students every year. Every student has something special about themselves, and I enjoy having a year to watch my students grow and find their way here at PHS.”
Even with teaching, Coach Salinas stays busy outside school as well. He says “Since I have kids, most of my weekends consist of kid activities, like the Zoo or Sea World. But when I have free time to myself, I enjoy playing golf with some friends/coworkers. I’m also in grad school to one day become an Assistant Principal/Principal, so that takes up most of my time outside of here.”
PHS is so fortunate to have Coach Salinas here and wish to thank him for all that he does!